Sweet Baby Jesus Frog

So I took the youngest school supply shopping, and afterwards we went to Sweet Frog. My head was down, as I was thinking hard about whether I should put more chocolate sprinkles on my frozen yogurt. (Answer: Of COURSE I should…) I look up to see a sweet teenaged girl chirping at me from behind the counter, ready to ring up my order.

I tried really hard not to stare at her torso. Really hard. But I was trying to make sure her shirt said what I thought it said. It was a Sweet Frog shirt – nothing unusual about that – all the employees wear Sweet Frog shirts. This girl’s shirt, though, had a fun anagram on it! (Is it a mnemonic device? I’m always getting those mixed up. Anyhow…) It said,

SweetFullyRelyOnGod

Well, then. I always like my froyo with sprinkles and a side of proselytizing!

I looked it up when I got home and learned, sure enough, Sweet Frog is a company founded on Christian principles. That’s not a deterrent for me, by the way. I frequent many stores whose owners are Christian. I don’t even mind when they run their businesses on Christian principles. If I learn (as I sadly often do) that said Christian principles motivate them to spend oodles of their profits on anti-gay and anti-women causes, I simply choose not to shop there. Being founded on Christian principles alone, though, doesn’t make me uncomfortable as a consumer in the slightest. I know too many brilliant, open-hearted, non-judgmental Christians for it to make me feel like that.

Regarding Sweet Frog, specifically, I have no idea what the politics of the owners/founders are. Even the fact that the “Frog” in “Sweet Frog” stands for “fully rely on god” wouldn’t elicit a protest from me. An eye-roll, perhaps, but not a blog post.

That the employees are passive-aggressively doling out spiritual guidance? THAT bothers me. It’s not even like it was telling me that the person wearing it fully relied on god. It didn’t say, “Sweet I-Fully-Rely-On-God!” It was a directive. It was telling MEto fully rely on god. That’s taking it a little too far for my taste.

Please understand me. I do not want to fuel the outrage machine. I’m not encouraging others to boycott or complain. I’m not judging those who appreciate the message. I’m simply speaking of my personal reaction to such business practices.

AS SUCH…

When I set out to buy a frozen delicious treat, I’m not going to church. I’m not interested in being faith-bombed. I AM going to buy frozen yogurt.

Absolutely right on the money! If someone wants to proclaim his/her religious or political beliefs by way of a tee-shirt, weird, but fine. But when the tee-shirt presumes to tell me what mine should be – weird, but not fine. Excellent post!!!

theworthingtonpost

Right? Weird and off-putting. And anyone who knows me knows I’m just fine with weird.

I live in South Carolina. That sort of stuff is Everywhere. Bible verses on business cards or store signage, contemporary Christian music when you sit down to eat your 15,000 calories (and a diet coke) at the local fast food chain, chick tracts found in the bathroom stalls of the local seafood diner.

Proselytizing is a high art here. The ways people try to get you to warm the pews of their church, because it really is a competition, is quite varied.

mommygrrl

You’re a tough one. I have no problem staying away from Hobby Lobby (Michael’s is my craft drug of choice) but I don’t let much get in the way of my Froyo, yo.

buzzdixon

In’n’Out Burgers in California has chapter & verse referencers to various Bible verses but not the actual verse themselves; the citations are not obviously placed.

Just from my personal knowledge of large groups of fundamentalist and right-wing christians, I think this is very effective advertising technique. Some christians will go out of their way to buy more burgers wrapped in bible scripture paper (then throw it away??? Ok don’t get that) and also go out of their way to actively boycott rainbow wrapped burgers. I don’t think the frog yogurt people are proselytizing, I think they’re advertising. Christians welcome here! This is your kind of special Christian yogurt. Christian: please spend spend spend here because we mention God and never ever say “happy holidays”! Kinda clever, actually. It does give us a clue into the business owners insight into how to manipulate christians for financial gain, as well.

Politicians do it all the time. At least here in the south. I don’t know about the rest of the world.

jeanvaljean24601

Perhaps if they had been Buddhist owned, the shirt might have read “Go OM every day”? (To fit the initials, For Relief Om Grow.)
If Confucian, “Further Relationships Of Gratitude”?
If Stoic-owned, “Fail Regularly Outward Glee”?
If…

pagansister

Clever–and I wonder how many people actually notice the shirt as they check out.

Estelle Sobel Erasmus

Yes. You tell it girl. Seriously, that is a bit ridiculous. I hate when people bring politics/religion into frozen goods:)
Estelle

feelingfroggy

Spend your money any way you want, but it seems weird that the suggestion to rely on God would be so offensive as to prevent the froyo from tasting as good as it did when you only imagined a sweet amphibian.

Moontan

My, my. This is taking sensitivity to new … depths.

yewtree

I would also be buying my frozen yoghurt elsewhere.

In the UK, we have a frozen yoghurt cafe called Snog (which is slang for French kissing). No proselytising in our eateries!

theworthingtonpost

Oh, dear – I think I’d rather be told to French kiss (a person of my choice, of course) than to rely on God… 😀